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Jan. 20, 2006 Fred has less time for writing for the near foreseeable future, but here is a collection of stuff – ideas floating around in my my head, some may have been pieces in their own right. Lice suck! Actually, they itch, but not as much as you might think. My daughter, in kindergarten, has lice and they seem near impossible to get rid of. WebMD has some very handy information and addresses some common myths, the most relevant to my situation is that removing nits (lice eggs) is a waste of effort. Yet, contrary to current research, the school system that she attends has a no-nit policy. I was actually called in to school the other day because five, yes, FIVE! nits were found in her hair. I had to yank them out under the watch of the local nurse Rachet, who's uber bright light turns them into little neon signs. The conservative-filtered-science “news” still insists that global warming isn't real. In the 80s, the conservative mantra was the greenhouse effect was a dream of sandal wearing hippies. The truth was that astronomers wondered why Venus is so darn hot – they coined the term, “greenhouse effect”. Environmental groups naturally latch onto science which agrees with their politics, and nuance-lacking conservatives make connections that don't exist. No matter how one's politics may revile the Sierra Club or Greenpeace, global warming is real. The consensus was officially reached under none other than the Bush administration, and Bush was already caught lying about it [big surprise there]. Disliking Kyoto for economic reasons has no bearing on the validity of real science. I often hear blurps from conservatives about study q or study p that shows an anomaly, be it solar cycles or the regularity of ice ages. The other 24 studies, however, confirm and add to the consensus. This is where artificially applied “fairness and balance” fails us. The other “side” doesn't warrant equal time, this merely gives the public the impression that there is a 50-50 debate going on. Get your science news from science sources; the most recent I've read, just days ago, finds a direct link between human-produced greenhouse gases and warming. The ice is melting in Antarctica, and nice holes are forming – holes that scientists can climb into – right inside of glaciers. Inside, they can study trapped gases in icicles and so forth and have further evidence of a sharp rise in temps concurring with human activity. The swath of time they compared was 800,000 years. I always take my kids through the toy section at Wal-mart and other stores, priding myself on saying, “no”, to every, “can I have this??” question. I don't feel any guilt, and they don't feel real rejection. As a matter of fact, it's a bit of joke now. I make a point to rub my chin, look into the air, and pretend to actually consider the request. My rule is that if the kids are good, they may get to spend a quarter on a machine on the way out. Looking at toys is fun, and it gives them something to hope for. We always go through the pet section, so the kids can look at the animals and get further negative responses to their requests. The last trip was amusing – for some reason, the kids are taken with birds all of a sudden. I lifted up my three year old daughter to look at the parakeets. As she tapped the glass before I could stop her, the birds ran for dear life to the back of the cage. Thinking back, I imagine their eyes as big and bulging, like something out of a bugs bunny cartoon. Her response was, “Daddy, they LIKE me!” Next she looked at the canaries. These chaps suffer from perpetual bad hair-days, with feathers that shoot straight into the air. Stubborn as oxen, they refused to be startled, though that bad "hair" did stiffen a tad at the sight of the large mammal reaching for them. ------------ About the author Frederick Smith: I enjoy writing about the positive virtues of humanism - humanists are the good guys. I now have a blog that I will start to increasingly maintain and update. Here is the link: fredsuberview.blogspot.com/ This is my second foray into the UK writing discordia. This time around, I want to be a tad more raw - maybe a bit edgier (does that sound "art-see"?) Maybe I'll address even more issues that most Americans consider taboo... About my personal background and life: I was born, I got some education, worked, ate, and had some kids. It seems I like to write � something that was unknown to me until relatively recently...How's that for detail? ;) Hate mail is welcome unless you are from the Army Of God. Please! It's not that I mind seeing pictures of aborted fetuses in my inbox, but once you've seen one you've pretty much seen them all... Email: dahlek65@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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